Kristen Neff is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at University of Texas, Austin, specialist in self-compassion research, and author. Her new book is Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive. Read Neff’s interview by Spirituality & Health’s Stephen Kiesling in the May/June 2021 issue.

Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami from Spirituality & Health Magazine

Kristin Neff, Fierce Self-Compassion

Tracee Stanley doesn’t want you to fear rest. Stanley is a yoga Nidra lineage holder, meditation and self-inquiry teacher, and co-founder of the Empowered Wisdom Yoga Nidra School. Her new book is Radiant Rest: Yoga Nidra for Deep Relaxation and Awakened Clarity. Be sure to read Stanley’s essay, “Embrace the Transition” which appears in the May/June 2021 issue of Spirituality & Health. “We have been out of balance for quite some time, and I think that the pandemics—the multiple pandemics—that we find ourselves in right now, whether it be covid, whether it be racism, whether it be climate crisis … they all to me have a thread of not honoring the divine feminine.” In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Stanley discuss yoga Nidra, “the yoga of sleep,” as it connects to the divine feminine, the earth, and the self. They explore the essentiality of the divine feminine and the return to the mother—and how such a return can offer humanity a “new story.” Later they discuss the necessity of yoga Nidra practice in recognizing the Self, and how the practice allows the expansion of Self in the face of oppression. They close out their conversation with the idea that yoga Nidra is the act of total surrender, that the practice of yoga Nidra is counter-culture to the grind mentality, to trauma, and that it is okay to let go and just rest. “Yoga nidra is this process of completely non-doing and releasing of thought—it’s a place of no thought.”

Tracee Stanley, Radiant Rest and Yoga Nidra

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a Korean-American theologian and Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. She is the author and editor of 20 books, a contributor to Spirituality & Health online and in print (Tune in for her upcoming article in the July/August 2021 issue!), and the host of Madang podcast hosted by The Christian Century.  In her recent digital article for Spirituality & Health, “Body Prayer for Every Day,” Kim discusses her mother’s journey with prayer and ways you can engage in whole-body prayer, citing the practices of Julian of Norwich (1343–1416).  In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Kim jump around Kim’s work from books to articles as they discuss the intersectionality of identity and religion, why we love labels, and how the Korean language evolves our ability to speak about God. They also dive into Kim’s first book, The Grace of Sophia: A Korean North American Women's Christology—in which they discuss the feminine dimensions of God and the divine feminine.  “I hope people will retrieve, and welcome, the feminine dimension of the divine. It’s so liberative, it brings us together. And even in the old testament, it talks about God as the mother hen, and there are feminine images of God. But because we live in a dualistic world, we kind of separate the two, we can't seem to kind of welcome both of them.” They close out their conversation in a discussion of responsible doing as a means to knowing, and how praying with the whole body—beyond just words—can bring you closer to your religion and your understanding of God. Whole-body prayer, Kim explains, is a holistic approach to prayer.  “People focus on the speaking aspect of prayer, that is the most highly valued way of prayer—through our speaking—which is also going back to this problem of dualism, we have separated everything up, compartmentalized. ... If we move away from this dualistic way of prayer, we can pray with our bodies, with our hands, with our feet, with our minds, with our words, with our language—it becomes a more holistic approach.”  Subscribe to Essential Conversations for free so that you will never miss an episode.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Body Prayer and Divine Feminine

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is a naturalist, writer, educator, and the author of six books, including Mozart's Starling, an account of the composer's relationship with a unique bird who sang a version of his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major. In her latest work, Rooted: Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit, Haupt writes about how science, poetry, mysticism, and the traditions of earth-based cultures all point to the truth that we are interconnected and pose the “essential question of how to live on our broken, imperiled, beloved earth.” In this episode, Rabbi Rami and Haupt discuss the scientific reason that being in the natural world is so therapeutic to humans, the “industry” of forest therapy, solitude, and the innate human connection with nature.   “For millennia mystics and poets and earth-based indigenous cultures and children have known that we are at our healthiest, our wisest, our most creative, in our most embodied sense of wellness when we are in the natural world.”  They also explore the idea of “shedding” otherness, separateness, elevation, pretense, and comfort in order to become in deeper relationship with the earth and gain an understanding that “we are standing on holy ground.”  Haupt and Rabbi Rami close out their conversation with the notion of “fruitful darkness” and why Haupt doesn’t equate darkness to being bad or negative, but rather, a part of the life-bringing cycle. 

Lyanda Haupt, Life at the Crossroads of Science, Nature, and Spirit

Dr. Peter Lovatt is a dance psychologist, former professional dancer, and current teacher at the Royal Ballet School in London, UK. He is the founder of the Dance Psychology Lab at the University of Hertfordshire and has been a featured speaker alongside Barack Obama, Oprah, and Sir Richard Branson. Rabbi Rami and Dr. Lovatt discuss the universality of dancing within the human condition, how dancing is scientifically proven to improve your mental and physical health, and how dancing is the window to the human soul.

Dance Psychologist Peter Lovatt

Hala Khouri has been teaching yoga and movement for over 25 years. As a trained psychologist, she does clinical work with people struggling with trauma, depression, and anxiety. She trains clinicians and yoga teachers as well as educators and non-profits to be trauma informed. She and Rabbi Rami discuss her new book, Peace from Anxiety: Get Grounded, Build Resilience & Stay Connected Amidst the Chaos.

Hala Khouri

Brian McLaren is a leading voice advocating for a new kind of Christianity. He was featured in Spirituality and Health’s January/February 2021 issue as one of the seven trailblazers who are helping define the future of spirituality. He and Rabbi Rami discuss McLaren's latest book Faith After Doubt, and the dangerous rise of right-wing Christian nationalism.

Brian McLaren, author of Faith After Doubt

This week it is our pleasure to interview Luvvie Ajayi Jones. Luvvie is an author, a sought-after speaker, and a podcast host who thrives at the intersection of comedy, technology and justice. She penned the New York Times bestselling I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual. Her latest book is Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual. Who is a professional troublemaker? They are the necessary truth-tellers in the room. Listen to the podcast to find out why they are so vital. @Luvvie

Luvvie Ajayi Jones

Rabbi Rami's guest this week is author Natalie Goldberg. She is the author of 15 books, including the classic Writing Down the Bones, (Shambhala, 1986). Her new book is Three Simple Lines: A Writer's Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku. 

Author Natalie Goldberg

This episode’s guest is Maci Daye. Daye is a licensed professional counselor, a certified Hakomi therapist, and certified sex therapist. She and Rabbi Rami discuss the connection between spirituality and sex, and how mindfulness techniques can be used to rediscover erotic potential.

Podcast: Therapist Maci Daye

Rabbi Rami’s guest this week is Rev. Jes Kast. She is a pastor at Faith United Church of Christ in State College, Penn. Rev. Kast is featured as one of the trailblazers in the Jan./Feb. 2021 issue of Spirituality and Health, in the feature story “7 Spiritual Radicals.” It interviews seven leaders who are redefining contemporary religion and making it more inclusive.

Podcast: Progressive minister Rev. Jes Kast

This week, Rabbi Rami speaks with Kevin Anderson, Ph.D. Dr. Anderson is a psychologist, life coach, author, and speaker. His recent books include Now Is Where God Lives: Nested Meditations to Delight the Mind and Awaken the Soul and The Inconceivable Surprise of Living: Sustaining Wisdom for Spiritual Beings Trying to Be Human.  Using a playful approach to words, such as with nested meditations, can be a form of cognitive therapy, Anderson says, helping us deal with stuck emotions and maladaptive thoughts. Listen to the episode to learn how to use the technique.

Kevin Anderson, Ph.D. on Nested Meditations

Individualism and capitalism are simply not working. Author Sarah Wilson talks with Rabbi Rami about the challenges we face as humans, such as climate change and racial injustice, and proposes healthier systems to heal a fractured world.

Author Sarah Wilson

Robyn Moreno is a certified yoga teacher, trained life coach, and practicing curandera (Mexican folk healer). In the past, she led a go-go life in publishing and as an Emmy-nominated TV host. But internally, she was in crisis—with unresolved childhood trauma and deep burnout. She calls this a soul crisis. Moreno found deeper roots, and healing, when she transitioned from media maven to modern curandera, rediscovering her family’s Mexican culture—and herself. She and Rabbi Rami discuss her journey to studying an earth-based wisdom tradition that her great-grandmother had practiced, curanderismo. 

Robyn Moreno, a modern-day curandera

Who do you want at your deathbed? We do not like to think about such things, yet we will all die, and wrestling with such finitude can actually make our lives richer. Rabbi Rami’s guest this week is Lydia Dugdale MD, an associate professor of medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University. She is an internal medicine primary care doctor and a medical ethicist. Dr. Dugdale is a frequent contributor to Spirituality & Health, and her new book, The Lost Art of Dying (July 2020), explores hopeful perspectives on death and dying—and living with intention—via the lost medieval practice of ars moriendi. Ars moriendi were originally two texts from the medieval era and when taken in the context of the Bubonic Plague, death was literally all around. The idea is you do not know when death will come upon you, so you need to always be ready and prepare for a good death. It sounds morbid, but doing the work can make life more meaningful. Take, for example, reconciling with family before it is too late. Dugdale finished her book prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and while it is thankfully not the Plague, death is again front and center in our culture. Dr. Dugdale and Rabbi Rami discuss, for example, the important difference between dying alone and lonely dying. At the height of the pandemic, she reports working in the hospital and seeing, due to the shortage of PPE that would have allowed closer human contact, patients dying in a very lonely way, Dugdale. “To have patients die and have their last contact be through an iPad, it was a tragedy not only for the patients and for their families, but also for the doctors and nurses.” So what happens when we die? For more on that, you will have to listen to the podcast.  

Podcast: Dr. Lydia Dugdale on the Lost Art of Dying

Join Rabbi Rami every Friday as he interviews spiritual teachers, health experts, authors and more from the pages of Spirituality & Health Magazine.

hubhopper

Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami from Spirituality & ...

hubhopper